Comment on this story
comment
Republican lawmakers on Sunday successfully removed a $35 price cap on the cost of insulin for many patients from the ambitious legislative package Democrats are pushing through Congress this weekend, invoking arcane Senate rules to drop the measure .
The insulin cap is a longtime ambition of Democrats, who want it to apply to patients with Medicare and private insurance. Republicans left intact the part that applies to Medicare patients, but removed the insulin cap for other patients. Bipartisan talks on a broader insulin pricing bill broke down earlier this year.
Senate lawmakers earlier this weekend ruled that part of the Democrats’ cap, included in the Inflation Reduction Act, did not meet the rules that allow them to advance a bill under the process known as reconciliation, a tactic that helps them avoid a GOP Filibuster. This gave the Republicans an opportunity to undo him.
“Republicans just declared themselves in favor of expensive insulin,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “After years of tough talk about taking on insulin makers, Republicans have for once resisted wilting in the heat of Big Pharma.”
Some Republicans supported the price cap in a 57-43 vote in favor of the measure, but did not join enough Democrats in support to meet the passage threshold.
More than 1 in 5 insulin users with private health insurance pay more than $35 a month for the drug, according to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
About 7 million Americans need insulin daily. A Yale University study found that 14% of insulin users spend more than 40% of their income after food and housing costs on medication.
Despite an adverse ruling by the House lawmaker, Democrats chose to keep the full price cap provision in the bill anyway. That gave Republicans, led in the debate by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.), an opening for a challenge in the Senate. Democrats would have needed 60 votes — their entire caucus plus the support of 10 GOP members — to overcome that challenge. They fell short.
The fight was a political loss for Democrats, but it was also a political win, as lowering the price of drugs like insulin is popular with voters.
“The only way it doesn’t happen is if the people on the other side of the aisle decide to block it,” said Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.), who previously introduced legislation calling for a limit of prices .
GOP lawmakers had previously tried to offer their own narrower version of an insulin price cap, but Democrats rejected it as too narrow.
“The cost of insulin is not only out of control,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on the Senate floor, imploring the GOP not to remove the price cap from the bill. “That shouldn’t be hard. vote to cast.”